Wants to land itself from 1 metre off ground

[John Casey]

I have noticed the last 2 times I've flown that after a normal flight, I get to about one metre from the ground (landing gear just down) and then the Inspire puts itself down regardless of what I do with the sticks. I have tried pushing up on the throttle, but nothing happens. I realize this can be normal when the battery situation is getting dire, but I'm talking about landing with 40% battery left. I haven't done all the latest firmware upgrades - I'm still about 3 upgrades back, but I do have the app set for automatic upgrades so it's the latest version. Has anyone else experienced this? Anyone know what's happening to cause this?

 

[AeroMirage]

I have noticed this some, but never to where the AC would not respond to the RC. I noticed about 6 months ago the craft switching to landing mode by itself was uncomfortably close to the ground. I too stopped doing FW updates 3 or 4 ago due to all I read about weird side effects. Anyway, I started switching to landing mode manually at about 20 feet altitude and always land manually as I land it gentler than it lands itself.
You weren't near any kind of interference were you? Has this happened since?

 

[John Casey]

I have noticed this some, but never to where the AC would not respond to the RC. I noticed about 6 months ago the craft switching to landing mode by itself was uncomfortably close to the ground. I too stopped doing FW updates 3 or 4 ago due to all I read about weird side effects. Anyway, I started switching to landing mode manually at about 20 feet altitude and always land manually as I land it gentler than it lands itself.
You weren't near any kind of interference were you? Has this happened since?

No there were no interference problems. In fact, there seemed to be no problems at all except, it decided to put itself down, and definitely not because of battery level being low. It landed fine on soft grass, but like you, I would have put it down a bit softer.

 

[Simon Mallin]

If you haven't checked, it sounds as though 'Automatic Landing Gear' could be enabled though you should still be able to control the a/c - it just lowers the gear when you get close to the ground.
and automatically raises it when you take off.

You'll find it under 'Main Controller Settings / Advanced Settings'. I think this may have been called 'Self Adaptive Landing Gear' under earlier firmware versions.

 

[lake_flyer]

Did you lower the landing gear manually, just 1 meter above the ground?
Keep in mind that by lowering the landing gear, the props will be below the barometer and the bird will sink a few feet because of the changed pressure.

 

[IrishSights]

Lowering the landing gear changes the aerodynamics and always causes the AC to desend slightly. If you are too close to the ground when the gear comes down it will loose altitude and 'find' the ground. I always lower the gear manually at about 10m or so then land.

PFAW Holder
BNUC-S Qualified

 

[John Casey]

Yes I am aware of what happens. Without wanting to sound like a smartxxxx, I have been flying for many years and with the Inspire, I have landed many hundeds of times. That did sound like a smartxxxx, but I'm just trying to say I'm not totally new to landing the Inspire, but this is quite different to what normally happened. Yes, I do have auto landing gear lowering switched on, but I have had this on since it became a feature. And I normally still manually put the landing gear down before the auto function gets to do it anyway (perhaps that might have changed??) It's just that there seems to be something causing it to auto land after about a metre left to go. I can hover with gear down at 2 metres all I like, but not that last little bit.

 

[lake_flyer]

We're just sharing best practises and experience here.
I normally have auto gear off. But i found out that since the last update(s?) the gear lowers at only 1 meter above ground. Earlier FW version it lowered closer to 2m up.

However, what you describe is odd.

It's just that there seems to be something causing it to auto land after about a metre left to go. I can hover with gear down at 2 metres all I like, but not that last little bit.

It seems that auto gear also takes that last meter in account and sets the bird down (because DJI knows of the change in pressure and knows it will descend that meter anyway). Try with auto gear off and landing gear down. See what happens.

 

[The Editor]

I have noticed the last 2 times I've flown that after a normal flight, I get to about one metre from the ground (landing gear just down) and then the Inspire puts itself down regardless of what I do with the sticks. I have tried pushing up on the throttle, but nothing happens. I realize this can be normal when the battery situation is getting dire, but I'm talking about landing with 40% battery left. I haven't done all the latest firmware upgrades - I'm still about 3 upgrades back, but I do have the app set for automatic upgrades so it's the latest version. Has anyone else experienced this? Anyone know what's happening to cause this?

My best guess on this is that at circa 1M off the deck you in what's known as ground effect as well as the prop wash causing fluctuating low pressure waves immediately below the aircraft. The on board barometer senses the low pressure and therefor believes the aircraft to be ascending. This causes the flight controller to issue a descend command. Unfortunately this only makes the matter worse and therefore the aircraft descend until it has landed.

Can you see if the same thing happens with both VPS on and OFF.

 

[Tommy Bayshore]

I had the same issues with my last two Inspire's i have, I got one of them back from repair now it lands normal.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[John Casey]

I will try it with the landing gear lowering automatically turned off, although I will be surprised if it's that because it happens even if I lower the landing gear manually at 4 or 5 metres above the ground and I descend to about 1 metre and it then decides to put itself down. Unless the ground effect and prop wash are causing something to happen because every time it has happened it's been very windy and I have been trying to lower and stabilize gently before touching down. Last battery was at 37% when back on the ground. I'm thinking if it were a RTH thing, it would ascend up to the RTH altitude and the go over to the RTH position and put down there (in all cases I wasn't landing exactly at the RTH set point, but within 20 metres of it). I hope to go out and test it today so I'll see what happens then.